American Express Cobalt Review 2024: The Best Grocery Credit Card In Canada

• In your first year as a new Cobalt Cardmember, you can earn 1,250 Membership Rewards® points for each monthly billing period in which you spend $750 in net purchases on your Card. This could add up to 15,000 points in a year. That’s up to $150 towards a weekend getaway or concert tickets
• Earn 5x the points on eligible eats and drinks in Canada, including groceries and food delivery. Spend cap applies.
• Earn 3X the points on eligible streaming subscriptions in Canada
• Earn 2X the points on eligible ride shares, transit & gas in Canada
• Earn 1 additional point on eligible hotel and car rental bookings via American Express Travel Online
• Earn 1X point for every $1 in Card purchases everywhere else
• Enjoy access to hotel bookings, a room upgrade (when available), 12pm check-in and late check-out (when available), and up to $100 USD hotel credit to use on amenities when charged to the room for a stay of 2 or more consecutive nights through The Hotel Collection from American Express Travel
• Transfer points 1:1 to several frequent flyer and other loyalty programs
• Cobalt Cardmembers receive regular Perks such as bonus reward offers and access to great events
• Access Front Of The Line® Presale & Reserved Tickets to some of your favourite concerts and theatre performances and special offers and events curated for Cardmembers with American Express® Experiences
• American Express is not responsible for maintaining or monitoring the accuracy of information on this website. For full details and current product information, click the Apply Now link. If you apply and get approved for an American Express Card, (I/we) may receive compensation from American Express, which can be in the form of monetary payment

The American Express Cobalt® Card is the credit card all your credit card-obsessed friends rave about. Its superior earn rate on drinking and eating out, streaming subscriptions, and commuting (whether on public transit or in an Uber) makes it ideal for people who spend heavily in these categories.

Bonus perks like Front Of The Line presale tickets to hot concerts and then getting into the Amex Lounge, give the VIP experience to those who love a night out on the town.

While the redemption flexibility is high for anything from gift cards to statement credits (and even shopping at Amazon.ca), to maximize your rewards, use it for travel—especially for transferring Membership Rewards to Aeroplan or British Airways. Sadly, the Cobalt doesn’t give you access to Airport lounges, but it more than makes up for it with its excellent travel insurance, including emergency medical—arguably, the most important travel insurance not available on many travel credit cards.

Quick Facts

• While the $155.98 annual fee is higher than the $120 annual fee you see on many high-end rewards cards, you pay $12.99 monthly instead of a big expense on your bill once a year.

Earning Membership Rewards

Earning rewards with the Amex Cobalt is easy, as there are enough purchase categories earning Membership Rewards to cater to almost any lifestyle. You can earn Membership Rewards points anywhere American Express is accepted on very broad categories of spending that are applicable to all Canadians, like gas, groceries and travel purchases. As one of the most versatile American Express cards available in Canada in terms of how you can earn, American Express has some of the highest earn rates on the market in categories all Canadians use, including the following:

• 5 points per dollar on food and drinks, including restaurants, quick service restaurants, coffee shops and drinking establishments in Canada. Delivery services like Uber Eats, Skip the Dishes and Door Dash are included in that, as well as stand-alone grocery stores to a maximum of $2,500 in net purchases. Once that threshold is hit, cardholders earn 1 point per dollar.
• 3 points per dollar on select streaming services. The full list can be found at americanexpress.ca/streaming and includes 11 eligible streaming providers like Netflix, Disney+ Crave and Apple TV+. However, subscriptions on these platforms only earn points if they are paid for directly. When they are bundled with cable services or other third-party platforms, such as those bundled with your internet provider or included with your car, do not earn points.
• 2 points per dollar on travel and transit, including  atstand-alone gas stations, ride sharing services, local public transportation, travel services and travel bookings,  which include tour operators and lodging services.
• 1 point per dollar on all purchases outside these categories, but online retailers that sell goods from other merchants and transactions done through a mobile phone are notable circumstances that do not earn points.

An additional note on earning rewards concerns your ability to earn at all. While you may think American Express isn’t accepted in many places, it’s a common misconception. Most major retailers, gas stations and restaurants do accept Amex, and, with Amex’s push to support smaller businesses, its increasing acceptance among those local neighbourhood gems is consistently improving.

Amex Offers

In addition to collecting Membership Rewards from the stated purchase categories, you can get significant cash back in the form of statement credits and extra Membership Rewards points through the Amex Offers portal. One offer from Dior has cardholders spending at least $125 in qualifying fragrance and beauty purchases using their registered Card online at www.dior.com/en_ca/beauty by June 18, 2024 and earn 2,500 bonus Membership Rewards® points one-time. A registration cap applies and terms also apply. Another offer gives Amex cardholders $20 in statement credit when they spend at least $80 in qualifying purchases using their registered Card at https://turbotax.ca/amexsbs or in the TurboTax app by June 15, 2024. A registration cap of 15,000 cardholders applies and additional terms apply. But if you register for Amex Offers as an American Express Cobalt cardholder, it’s another way to earn Membership Rewards and statement credits from your additional spending thanks to offers tailored to you. New offers are being added everyday, so check back regularly.

Redeeming Membership Rewards

There are several ways you can redeem the American Express Membership Rewards points earned with an American Express Cobalt Card.

Travel with Points

You can redeem your points for Ticketmaster tickets, gift cards or statement credits, but if you want the best redemption value, Forbes Advisor recommends redeeming your Membership Rewards towards travel.

The flexibility of your redemption options on travel alone is excellent with no less than four options for travel redemption:

1. Transfer points 1:1 or better to partner loyalty programs. For example, if you transfer points with Aeroplan, you’ll get a a return rate of 4.5% on your spending. Transfer points to hotel programs like Hilton Honors or Marriott Bonvoy. Since the Bonvoy has better redemption, we’ll focus our example there: An average Marriott Bonvoy point is worth $0.097, but transfer a Membership Rewards point to Marriott Bonvoy and the value jumps to 1.16 cents each.
2. Transfer to the Fixed Points Travel Program. This gets you the same value of up to $0.02 per mile, but only for short-haul flights (think Toronto to Montreal). Meanwhile, one step down, at a return rate of 3.76% or 1.75 cents per point, is long-haul flights within North America (think Calgary to LA).
3. Air Canada® Pay with Points. You can pay for Air Canada purchases with a minimum of 10 Membership Rewards points using Membership Rewards on all or part of your purchase. If part of your Air Canada purchase is made with points, the rest can be charged to your American Express Cobalt Card.
4. Transfer to the Flexible Points Travel Program. This ensures you always get at least $0.01 per point. Book any kind of travel with any provider, pay for it with your Amex Cobalt and each point is always worth $0.01 (e.g. 50,000 points is worth $500).

Shop with Points

Like other credit card reward programs on the market, Membership Rewards points can be used to purchase the following:

• Merchandise. Appliances, jewellery and electronics from leading brands like Breville, Sonos, Dyson, Cuisinart and Bella Pearls are available.
• Gift cards. Use them at leading restaurants like Montana’s, Swiss Chalet and Eastside Mario’s, as well as popular Canadian brands like Hudson’s Bay, Roots, Indigo and Cineplex.
• Shop with Points at Amazon.ca. You can link your American Express Membership Rewards account to your Amazon account and pay for eligible Amazon.ca purchases with points. Currently, 1,000 Membership Rewards are equal to $7 on Amazon.ca.

Cobalt Perks

American Express Cobalt cardholders are entitled to various perks just for having the credit card in their wallet. If you subscribe via email, American Express may send you correspondence split into two different categories.

• Offers. For example, $15 in statement credits when you spend $60 or more at Indigo.
• Events. For example, special access to an advance screening of IT: Chapter Two.

Rewards Potential

If you spend about $2,000 per month ($24,000 a year) using your Amex Cobalt, you get $1,080 in potential rewards or a return on spending of 4.5%.

That’s again, if you redeem your points for the most value, like transferring to Aeroplan or British Airways for flights. Using Amex’s Fixed Points Travel Program drops the value to $945 per year. If you use it for statement credits or charitable donations, you get $540 per year. If you’re using the points to shop at Amazon however, they’re only worth $378 per year.

Again, we highly recommend using this card for travel and the associated perks of being an Amex member.

The competition, when compared against the best travel rewards cards in Canada, makes the American Express Cobalt a smart pick. Let’s take a quick look.

The BMO Eclipse Visa Infinite Card at 5 points per $1 spent on eating and drinking may seem like a smart pick, but at a 1.61% return on spending, your annual rewards max out at $386 when you redeem for any travel.

When spending $2,000 a month with the Rogers World Elite Mastercard, you get a 1.5% return on spending of $360 that you can use towards statement credits. Even if we add the no annual fee, (bumping its value to a relative $480) it still pales compared to Cobalt.

The potential rewards of the Amex Cobalt also make it the best travel credit card in Canada in addition to the best grocery card.

• Travel benefits. The American Express Cobalt Card offers travel benefits such as travel insurance coverage, access to The Hotel Collection, and the ability to earn additional points for eligible hotel and car rental bookings.
• Insurance coverage. The American Express Cobalt Card provides various insurance coverages, including purchase protection, buyer’s assurance protection plan, emergency card replacement, and a fraud protection guarantee.
• Mobile device insurance. Cardholders are covered for theft, loss, or accidental damage to eligible mobile devices charged to the card, extending the manufacturer’s original warranty.
• Front of The line presales and reserved tickets. Cardholders have access to presale tickets and reserved tickets for various events, including concerts, theatre productions and special events.
• Excellent earn rate. Allows cardholders to stack up points quickly.
• Useful rewards with best-in-class redemption. from the myriad of options and a high point-to-dollar ratio.
• Member extras. Unlock $85 in additional value with American Express member extras from Amex Offers and Somm Cru, which gives you access to curated wine experiences and events.
• Pay for anything with points. Redeem your Membership Rewards with the “Use points for purchases” option where 1,000 = $10.
• World-class service. Customer service that you can call 24/7.
• The Hotel Collection. Stay at participating properties and get $100 USD in hotel amenities credit to use on dining, at the spa or at other leisure facilities when when charged to the room for a stay of 2 or more consecutive nights through The Hotel Collection from American Express Travel. In addition, get an upgrade in one category at check-in at participating properties (when available), 12pm check-in and late check-out (when available).

Interest rates

• Regular APR: 21.99%
• Penalty APR: 25.99%-28.99% variable

Fees

• Cash Advance: 21.99%
• Foreign Transaction Fee: 2.50%
• Annual Fee: $155.88, charged at $12.99 monthly.
• Any other fees: None.

The Amex Cobalt is arguably the best travel credit card in Canada. Here’s how it compares to some of its closest competitors.

Both of these American Express Cards come with perks like travel insurance, but the key difference is in their earnings. The SimplyCash Preferred card is a great cash back credit card, allowing you to earn 2% cash back on all purchases, with a sweet welcome offer of 10% on all purchases in the first 4 months (up to $400). While the SimplyCash Preferred has a lower annual fee, its earning potential at 2% vs. Cobalt’s 4.5% potential weakens its value. However, if you don’t want to fuss with points and value simplicity, the SimplyCash Preferred could be for you (If you’re looking for another great cash back card, check out the BMO CashBack World Elite).

The American Express® Green Card forgoes the annual fee, which is nice, but its 2% earn rate may make you regret the $158.99 you saved by not choosing the Amex Cobalt. After annual spending of $24,000, the Amex Green Card gives you $480 towards Aeroplan or British Airways flights, compared to the $960 you would have earned with the Amex Cobalt. The math, in the end, favours the Cobalt: $960 – $158.99 = $801.01 which makes the Cobalt $321.01 better than the Amex Green Card.

What you’ll notice about the American Express Gold Rewards Card is its high $250 annual fee. Its earn rates are also considerably lower in some purchase categories that it shares with the Amex Cobalt. Even though the earn rate for travel on both credit cards is 2 points per dollar,  (though the Amex Gold Rewards gives you an additional point if you book travel through the Amex online travel portal) the earn rate on everyday purchases like gas, groceries and at drugstores is still 2 points per dollar on the American Express Gold Rewards Card but is split into multiple categories on the American Express Cobalt.

For example, while you’ll still only get 2 points per dollar on groceries with the Amex Gold Rewards, you’ll get a best-in-class 5 points per dollar on groceries with the Amex Cobalt. Streaming isn’t even an eligible purchase category on the American Express Gold Rewards Card, but it is on the American Express Cobalt at 3 points per dollar. So while the American Express Cobalt matches the American Express Gold Rewards with a 2 points per dollar earn rate on gas, travel and transit. It also exceeds the Amex Gold Rewards in a lot of categories such as dining, drinks and groceries (five points) and streaming subscriptions (3 points).

Meanwhile, the Amex Cobalt exceeds the Amex Gold Rewards at a much cheaper annual fee of $155.88 (12 payments of $12.99) so it’s the American Express Cobalt Card that comes out on top in this comparison.

One of the few World Elite cards in Canada without an annual fee, the Rogers World Elite Mastercard still can’t compete with the Amex Cobalt. You get 1.5% cash back on all purchases, which is nice, but the real bonus for travellers is the 3% cash back for every dollar you spend in the U.S.– offsetting the usual 2.5% foreign exchange fee (you actually get 0.5% back). To truly maximize your rewards, consider the Amex Cobalt to book your travel and use the Rogers World Elite Mastercard for purchases abroad.

Related: Top Credit Cards in Canada

If you are looking to add the American Express Cobalt to your wallet, you will need to meet the following criteria:

•  Be a Canadian resident and have a Canadian credit file
• Be the age of majority in the province or territory where you live

If you have an iPhone or Android phone, you can use your Online Services user ID and password to get started once you’ve downloaded and opened the app from the app store. Once you have the Amex app, you can use it to pay for any eligible purchases with Membership Rewards points from your mobile phone. You can also use it for early access to exclusive ticket presales and front-of-the-line access to exclusive and in-demand concerts, theatre performances and events. Plus, as an American Express cardholder you get access to the hottest concerts through Ticketmaster so you’ll definitely be able to see your favourite bands well before their shows sell out.